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Monday, 1 February 2010

UPSETTING DOGGIE NEWS

A couple of dog stories have been in the news in NZ this week.

A five year old girl was taken to hospital after being attacked by 2 pit-bull terriors. The girl and her Dad were visiting a neighbour. The dogs were playing nicely with the girl until she fell over and was then attacked by both dogs. Sources say the dogs were well socialised, healthy and well looked after. The girl received 20 stitches to her face and is doing as well as can be expected. Both dogs have been destroyed.

Many people want 'dangerous dogs' banned in New Zealand. I can understand this reaction but as far as I am concerned any dog has the potential to become a dangerous dog. How do we decide which breeds are dangerous? I own a Cocker Spaniel and I love her dearly. I know she would never hurt me but she is an animal with animal instincts and I'm sure that given the right circumstances, she could do some serious damage to another. I'd like to think she'd only hurt somebody in my defence but how do we really know what makes dogs turn?

This next story had me in tears. Thirty three dogs (many of them puppies) were massacred a couple of days ago. Apparently, one of the dogs had killed a neighbours dog. The said neighbour convinced the owner of the 33 dogs (under duress) that the dogs must be killed.

Dogs may be killed in rural areas in NZ under certain circumstances but it must be a 'clean kill'. This was obviously not how it was done in this case. Surrounding neighbours reported hearing the dogs screaming in fear. The SPCA reported that the amount of blood covering the ground showed that many of the dogs had tried to move after being shot and there was enough ammunition used to kill many more animals.

Why someone would have so many dogs is beyond me but the Police and SPCA said they had never received any complaints regarding the dogs and they appeared to be well cared for.

A decision will be made soon as to what charges will be laid. As far as I know, the maximum a person can receive here for animal cruelty is 3 years in prison. I can understand why the man concerned would be upset over having his own dog killed but what he did was barbaric and totally out of line. If anyone did such a thing to my dog, I would stick his gun down his throat and shoot his balls off. I wouldn't really but you get the general idea.